young and rebuilding Olympiacos team, Spanoulis not only led the club to a EuroLeague title run in 2012, but he also went on to lead the team to a historical EuroLeague championship repeat in 2013. In the process, he gained another two EuroLeague Final Four MVP awards, thus joining Toni Kukoč as the only players in the history of European basketball to achieve that distinction on three occasions. Under his leadership, Olympiacos reached another two EuroLeague Finals, in 2015 and 2017. In 2017, European basketball historian Vladimir Stanković, named Spanoulis the "Most Clutch Player in EuroLeague History". In 2020, Spanoulis was named the "Best EuroLeague Player of The 2010s Decade" by the readers of the website Eurohoops.net. Spanoulis played an instrumental role on the gold medal win of the Greece men's national basketball team at 2005 EuroBasket. He was one of the main stars of Greece's 2006 FIBA World Cup silver medal team, scoring 22 points in the memorable victory over Team USA (101–95), in the tournament's semifinals. It was however, Greece's bronze medal at the 2009 EuroBasket, that emphasized Spanoulis' leadership within an injury-plagued Greece national team, and consequently earned him an All-EuroBasket Team honor. In 2020, Spanoulis was voted one of the 25 Best Players in Summer Olympics history, since the inclusion of NBA players in 1992, and one of the 5 Best Players of the FIBA EuroBasket, since the year 2000. Early life and youth career Spanoulis was born in Larissa, Greece, on 7 August 1982. His father Thanasis Spanoulis, was the owner of a drug store, and his mother Georgia Spanouli, was a bank clerk. Spanoulis was the couple's second and last child, being born three years after his older brother Dimitris. At the age of 7, Spanoulis began training in the sports of football, swimming, and basketball. As a youth, Spanoulis idolized the basketball players Michael Jordan and Nikos Galis. In 1994, at the age of 12, Spanoulis joined the youth basketball program of the multi-sports club Gymnastikos S. Larissas. Spanoulis' father Thanasis, died of cancer, on 4 November 1997, when Spanoulis was 15 years old. In 1999, at the age of 16, Spanoulis won the 1998–99 season's national under-18 club championship of Greece. He led Keravnos Larissa, the youth basketball subsidiary of Gymnastikos S. Larissas, to the title of the Panhellenic Youth Championship. He was the championship's leading scorer, and Most Valuable Player. In